Redefining Manhood: How Positive Masculinity Transforms Communities
Efforts to advance gender equality often focus, understandably, on creating more opportunities, resources, and protections for women and girls.
But what happens when the men and boys around them are part of the work too?
Girls do not experience education, safety, and opportunity in isolation. The attitudes and behaviors of fathers, brothers, peers, partners, and other men in their communities can reinforce the norms holding girls back or become a powerful force for changing them.
This session will explore positive masculinity as a practical approach to engaging men and boys as allies in gender justice, drawing on the experience of Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP) in Senegal.
Since integrating positive masculinity across its work in Senegal in 2022, WGEP has trained 325 male champions, including 85 men and 240 boys. The approach equips participants to examine gender roles and expectations, strengthen communication between parents and children, challenge harmful stereotypes, address gender-based violence, and advocate for behaviors that support women and girls.
Some of these champions also work through community-based neighborhood committees that help identify and report violence against women and girls, connecting shifts in individual attitudes with wider community responsibility.
Their experiences raise important questions for organizations working on gender equality. When should male engagement be integrated into programs primarily designed to support women and girls? What makes men and boys credible allies rather than the center of the intervention? How do you move beyond one-off sensitization toward genuine changes in behavior and social norms? And what safeguards are needed to ensure that engaging men strengthens rather than displaces the leadership and priorities of women and girls?
What to expect
An interactive session grounded in real experiences from Senegal. Participants will hear examples of male champions challenging restrictive gender norms in their own families and communities, then use small-group discussion and reflection to consider what those lessons mean for their own work.
The emphasis will be on practical learning: what helps men and boys reconsider ideas about masculinity, what makes community-level engagement effective, and how positive masculinity approaches can complement programs focused on girls’ education, violence prevention, and women’s empowerment.
Who this is for
This session is for organizations and practitioners working across gender equality, girls’ education, gender-based violence prevention, youth development, community engagement, and social norms change, as well as funders and policymakers interested in the role men and boys can play in advancing gender justice.
What you will get out of it
- Practical lessons from WGEP’s positive masculinity work in Senegal
- A clearer understanding of how male engagement can support girls’ education and gender equality
- Approaches for engaging men and boys in challenging harmful gender norms and violence
- Insight into connecting individual behavior change with wider community action
- Questions and ideas for integrating positive masculinity into women- and girl-focused programs without displacing their leadership
Hosted by
- Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP)